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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 



Shelf 8.-2-il ^ 

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



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SERVICE AND REWARD. 



BY 



FA]^I^IE E. HAMLI]^. 




CHRISTIAN AT HOME PUBLISHING CO., 

AS BURY PARK, N. J. 

1885. 



^';^ 




TO 

THE SHARER OF UY BURDEN'S, MY BROTHER, 

be]S'jami:n^ b. HAMLi:^r, 

THIS 

LITTLE VOLUME 

IS 

AFFECTIOKATELY DEDICATED 

BY THE AUTHOR. 



1 




i:n'troductio:n^< 



wing, 



Much of this little book has been written '' on the 
I have no apology to offer for its publica- 
tion. It has been done to aflFord its author a chan- 
nel for confession and testimony, in the hope that 
lessons from its leaves may help some who have en- 
listed in the service of the King. 

To unnerved and wounded soldiers in this army, 
the following pages are especially submitted for 
perusal, by 

The Author. 




ii 



gs^^viC^ %f) ^^wsp. 




Chapter I. 

The Devices of the Enemy. 

l!ALLI]S"G short of ideal life has shattered 
many minds. Even the successes of 
some, to their sensitive pride, seem but 
blunders — anomalies into which they have fallen, 
rendering their failures or imprudence more promi- 
nent. As they take on the succeeding years and 
the practicaUties of life, remaining out of Chi-ist, 
they find no help in their surroundings. 

Satan, who sees to it that the favored child, as 
well as the most forlorn fragment of humanity, is 
waited on by an embassy from his dominions at the 
proper time, hu^es him first into fields of fiction, 



8 Service ant> Reward. 

holds him fascinated in fairy lands of fancy, has 
him tip-toed and cuddled by the witch of romance, 
fed on the visionary and untrue, until, further on, 
light-fingered and airy, he plays with the philoso- 
phy of Darwin, and listens to the voice of Inger- 
soll, soon, with flaunting impudence, ready to fling 
his little fist in his Creator's face, and with the fool, 
exclaim, " There ts no GodP^ 

Another, plodding and heavy, is led to explore 
the fields of nature, diverted, for a season, through 
Hugh Miller's revelation, to " Science and the Bible P^ 
but poring next over the pages of Hume and Hux- 
ley, laughing at inspiration, scorning Christ's path 
of thorns and crosses, he plucks enchanting flowers 
from prickly stems of speculation, until, confused, 
he deems his life an accident^ believes that in the 
evolution of arbitrary law, something capriced^ re- 
sulting in the gnarled, humiliated, self-willed scin- 
tillation he feels himself to be. He is filled with 
longings so intense to find his place in the chain of 
beings, as to wish that nature might again perform 



Service ai^t> Eeward. 9 

a freak, and thrust him hito it, yet in this earnest 
he reads no soul prophesy of skimbering capacity 
or greater good. 

. In the pencilings of nature — the line of perfec- 
tion, the curve of gracefulness, the fretted edge, 
the glinting of light, and the blossom of beauty, 
he catches no glimpse of God's Temple of Design, 
hung with ideals of magnificence, linking the 
" Jiave-heens ^^ of time, portrayed in the light of the 
infinite, with the possibilities of the eternal. In 
the rustling leaf, the murmur of waters, and the 
voice of birds, he gathers no intimation of the richer 
harmony of a myriad bells chiming from the mount- 
ains of our God the praises of the Lamb, while 
harpers, on their harps, take up the glad refrain : 
'' Forever more^ amen / glory ^ dominion^ power ^ unto 
the Lamb be given.^^ And stranger still, he dis- 
covers not in this ante-chamber of social recogni- 
tion the introduction to a grander scale of associ- 
ation. 

All, no doubt, have " dreamed a dream'' in the 



10 Service axd Eeward. 

Eden of their years, and have fallen short of its 
realization. But the saddest of all sad lives is his, 
who, taught at his mother's knee, learns early the 
story of the cross, and so believes in Joseph's son, 
the carpenter, as, while he bends to his mother's 
tale, to hear the clinking of the tools, and see the 
curling shavings gather at his feet, yet whom, wan- 
dering young, Satan finds, and leads in devious 
paths, winding with gradual curve into the broad 
road, when with his victim near its fatal goal, he 
turns, and pointing down its avenues, he makes him 
mark its periods thus: ^' There you began. "Were 
better yonder. Conscience suffered here. On that 
rock, a letter from home. On yonder knoll, reproof 
from father. The sound of mother's voice — ' Come 
back, my child ; return !' Almost persuaded. Sis- 
ter's pleadings mark that spot. More persistent. 

Here comes a warning from Keverend R . 

Reckless. Along yon stile echo of voices at even- 
ing prayer — 



% 



Service ais^d Eeward. VL 

* Come home ! Come home ! 
You are weary at heart, 
For the way has been dark, 
And so lonely, and wild. 

O, prodigal child, 
Come home ! oh, come home ! 

* Come home! Come home! 
For we watch and we wait, 
And we stand at the gate. 
While the shadows are piled. 

O, prodigal child, 
Come home ! oh, come home ! 

' Come home ! Come home ! 
From the sorrow, and blame. 
From the sin, and the shame. 
And the tempter that smiled. 

O, prodigal child. 
Come home! oh, come home! 

* Come home! Come home ! 
There is bread, and to spare, 
And a warm welcome there, 
Then to friends reconciled. 

Oh ! prodigal child. 
Come home! oh, come home!' 

Then mother's voice again, in plaintive cry: 

* Come home ! 

Come, oh, come home ! 



12 Service an^d Reward. 

Abandoned. ]N^ow you are mine. I hold you fast. 
The brightest angePs wing would darken should it 
venture here. Your father, God, looks not this way. 
Long since the yearning heart of Jesus broke for 
you, and He no longer follows. The Holy Spirit, 
Heavenly Dove, wounded, disappears.'' Thus the 
destroyer goads his soul, until, in very agony, he 
moans for his cradle songs, his mother's arms, and 
would give worlds to be again the child that filled 
her baby's chair. 

What wonder that, tired of existence, he con- 
cludes to unhinge the instrument that times his life's 
wail ; to untie the knot of sinews, flesh, and blood, 
and let the actor out 



1 




Sekvice and Eeward. 13 



Chapter II. 
The Opportuneness of God^s Call. 

[HERE is a prophecy of Heaven in the out- 
cry of our natures for satisfaction — a 
moaning that change cannot effect. 
If any man living could become satisfied with 
the result of speculation^ at least for all time amused 
in his own world of thought, I believe that man is 
Colonel R. G. Ingersoll ; and yet in his last ministry 
of love to his brother, there is a wail of helplessness 
and despair that the most beautiful flowers of rhet- 
oric cannot cover. 

How differently does the soul following the light 
look upon the problem of life. He believes there is 
not a child of earth so humble as not to be needed 
in some department of service, and that has not 
been assigned its place among the living by Divine 
appointment. 



14 Sekyice AisTD Eeward. 

With this conviction he struggles, not to believe 
in Revelation and in the operations of the Triune 
God, but to learn of his attributes, and to recover 
his own first estate. 

It is consoling to know that all the dark passages 
of life come in a line of heritage so linked with the 
legacy of redemption, that all may learn the secret 
of a happy, inner life. 

In order that we may be apprised of our relation 
to God, the Spirit does its work just in season. Its 
light is seen when most needed, when it will best 
accomplish the Divine will. It may, and, I believe, 
sometimes, does delay conviction. A consistent, in- 
telligent man said once to the writer, " I believe I 
am a spiritual idiot, with no perception of the per- 
sonality of Jesus, or no power to apprehend Christ.^' 
Another friend said to the same, " I have never had 
anything that I could call a testimony of the Spirit 
to my soul of the existence of God." 

Both were honest, seeking light, and as the star 
of Revelation led the faithful Magi of the East into 



Service ai^d Reward. 15 

their long sought shrine, so will it dawn on all anx- 
ious inquirers, leading them into the light of truth. 
Otherwise, they are not responsible. I pity the sin- 
cere infidel, not the scofier, who, willfully persistent 
and proudly defiant, boasts of his philosophy, but 
that honest soul who sits in darkness, and Christian 
people, pitying, but not blaming, should pray for 
such, that they may soon be brought in. 

There is nothing more convincing of the truth of 
the Gospel than the seasonableness of God's call. 

I heard the Gospel first from my mother's lips 
when I was a child — my first Gospel sermon — and 
I have often wondered since if she, with her experi- 
ence, could have realized the shoals and quicksands 
awaiting my helpless feet, or could have anticipated 
the flood-tide of rationalism and infidelity that 
should dash upon my feeble bark, and, unless thus 
fortified, make fearful inroads upon my faith, as she 
talked with, and prayed for me, so late upon the 
evening previous to the morning when I first saw 
Jesus, 



16 Service ant> Eeward. 

Oh, no ! It was not my mother's foresight, nor the 
result of her experience. It was the opportuneness 
of God's call. My mother was chosen, consecrated 
disciple in the hands of Jesus, and he used her as 
an instrument of good tidings to my soul. 

What then to me were the pratings of the Arian, 
or the jeers of the infidel ! The Spirit had verified 
her ministry to my mind and soul in such a vision 
of Jesus as no thought of infidelity or dream of 
philosophy could afterward mystify, and if I had 
only been true to my first estate, I had not gone 
wandering thirsty and ahungered in the wilderness 
for so many years, or needed the discipline I had to 
have latterly to secure my return to the Saviour. 

The Spirit did its work just in season, and this 
was all that saved me from total wreck in the terri- 
ble intervening blank in my Christian experience. 

But not only is this opportuneness seen in its gen- 
eral application, but also in the special providences 
of the every-day afiairs of life. 

There is nothing that jars in God's grand econ- 



Service and Reward. 17 

omy. Does He send a soul on a mission, the inci- 
dents of that mission are in harmony — one event 
introductory to another. 

I felt rebuked one morning last autumn when 
visiting my home. For months previous I had been 
beseeching the Lord, for Christ's sake, through the 
agency of the Holy Spirit, to lift me (as he had 
done before) above a crushing sense of past devia- 
tion and unworthiness, combined with an intolerable 
burden of care, into that, which now seemed nec- 
essary for me, a life of trust 

In the compass of a few month's time, I provi- 
dentially came across Dorothea TruedelPs life, with 
a history of her work of faith and love, now under 
the supervision of Mr. Zeigler, conducted on the 
same principle, an account of Doctor Cullis' hos- 
pital for consumptives, sustained in like spirit, and 
finally, George MuUer's wonderful ''^ Life of Tnist.^^ 

I became convinced that God honors the least 
particle of faith man has in Him. That he who stops 
to number hairs, and care for sparrows, loves to have 



18 Service ai^d Reward. 

us take Him in all the little things of life; that to 
honor Him aright, we must accept the lesson he has 
tried so hard to impart to us, and be willing to lead 
lives of simple trust, not only for spiritual blessing, 
but, in order to be kept quiet in our souls, we must, 
after having done all that we can^ trust God for the 
"pins and shoe strings^ and the finding of lost things 
in domestic life. 

^'A small thing,'' says one, ^^to attract the atten- 
tion and secure the interest of the great God.'' It 
is very trivial, yet Jesus, whom by scriptural assur- 
ance we hold as our elder brother, and who knows 
all about his Father, and whose clean lips never 
opened to the utterance of a falsehood, assures us 
that He cares for smaller things than these. To the 
housewife, whose help has mislaid her cook-book, 
and the dinner hour near, the " fall of a sparrow " 
is of small account, compared to the recovery of her 
lost treasure, equally under her Heavenly Father's 
eye. To the refined yet penniless mother, the clothes 
and shoes of whose child are loose and flying, the 



Seeyice Ai^D Eeward. 19 

^^ hairs of her head" are of small comparative con- 
sideration to the _2:>ms and strings that would supply 
her need, and of which her father knoweth. 

Oh, we of little faith! There are not ^"^many 
mighty works done among us because of our un- 
beliefJ' 

'" AVell, then/' says one, " I will not henceforth 
close my doors, but will leave them open at night, 
to afford easy access to burglars, that I may the 
more exceedingly glory in the faith that will JceejJ 
them out.^^ But God has not promised to take care 
of folded hands or idle spirits. The man who was 
healed of the withered hand had to " stretch itforth.^^ 
When our case comes before the Father, one of the 
conditions of help in his mind, I think, is "she hath 
done what she could.^^ We must be willing to con- 
secrate, ahide^ and follow. 




20 Service ant> Eewaed. 



Chapter III. 

Providence is Incident Proof of the^ Truth of the 

Gospel. 

I HE harmony there sometimes is in incident 
with feehng and condition^ is sufficient to 
convince one who closely follows, that God 
is in all things to those who abide. 

Just before the panic, I made the mistake that so 
many have made. I launched my feeble boat into 
the w^hirlpool of business, only to have it wrecked 
in the financial crash that affected our city. 

I became greatly involved, and with a determina- 
tion to have no man lose finally by me, I have been 
struggling ever since to spare what I could from a 
precious charge committed to me by my Heavenly 
Father in paying debts. 

On this morning I was afflicted with a peculiar 
fear that I should not succeed. As mentioned 



Service ai^t> Eeward. 21 

before, I was earnestly seeking power to patiently 
abide by faith and correct living, the ground upon 
which the " all things^^ are promised, and without 
which faith is impossible, when my little niece, 
scarcely, perhaps, divining my thoughts, came to 
me with this message : " It was UlijaJi, wasnH ^Y, 
auntie^ who helped the poor widow who ivas in debt 
and in trouble ahout her sons^ by increasing her oil 
until the debts were all paid off^ and the vessels were 
fidly so that there ivas nothing left to put it in. It ivas 
Elijah ^wasnH it ? And Jesus helped him^ diduH He T'> 

These words from the lips of a child came just in 
season, like oil to my troubled spirit. I went to my 
room, rejoicing in the assurance that though I was 
poor, yet I had a rich, benevolent, pitying Father, 
who delighted to see me enjoy the good things of 
earth,which only Satan, and a want of power to recog- 
nize God's goodness, could wrest out of my hand. 

All that morning my heart had been crying out 
under its peculiar burden, and Satan, seeing the 
pressure, frightened me with the suggestion that / 



22 Service ant> Reward. 

should fail at last ; but He in whom I trusty and with 
whom all things are possible, seeing my sad condi- 
tion, by this incident, through the lips of a child, 
sent an answer that quieted me. 

One more circumstance illustrative of this truth 
comes to mind. A sincere woman had, for her own 
support, and that of others, been giving entertain- 
ments not in any way conducive to the glory of 
God. 

Gradually the conviction grew upon her that God 
would hold her responsible for appearing before an 
audience every night with no food for their souls. 
She thought and prayed and reasoned, and at last 
could do no differently than to change her pro- 
gramme, and hold religious meetings. 

On one occasion she had been promised a large 
collection at the close of the meeting, as there was 
a full attendance. At the ending of her address, 
she had become so much interested in those around 
her that, forgetting their promise of help, she con- 
tinued the meeting in the character of prayer and 



Service and Reward. 23 

testimonial exercises, after allowing all who wished 
to do so to retire. 

The meeting progressed, and the blessed Spirit 
was graciously near. She experienced unusual lib- 
erty, and the joy of obedience. In the midst of holy 
triumph, the thought rushed suddenly upon her — 

"''no collection ! M and lier little ones ivill want 

hread.'^ Looking to God, before she had time to 
feel disturbed, a brother sang : 

" It may not be my way, 
It may not be thy way, 
But still in His own way 
The Lord will provide/' 

And she recognized the voice of her Great Pro- 
vider in it. She met the brother the next morning 
with the inquiry : ^^ Why did you start that hymn 
last night, brother E. ? ''I don't know,'' said the 
person addressed, '' it was foreign to the spirit of 
the meeting, but it came to mind, and I started it." 
'^I know," said the questioner, ''it was Ood'^s an- 
swer to Satan.^^ 



'X. 



24 Service ai^d Eeward. 



Chapter IY. 
Qaalifications for Service. 
LIKE the ring of that little war-cry : 

*'Ho, my comrades, see the signal, 
Waving in the sky, 
Reinforcements now appearing, 
Victory is nigh.'^ 

It indicates conjlict and conquest^ service for Christ 
through practical Christianity, against Satan and 
infidelity. In this battle we have in prospect, if 
we fight well, three triumphs : Victory over self, 
victory over Satan in the re- taking of temporal spoil, 
victory over the sting of sin and the fear of death. 

It is a volunteer service, and no one is competent 
to enlist who is not willing to "work out his own 
salvation with fear and trembling,'^ by putting his 
will completely on the side and at the service of 
Christ. He must be willing to fight. While there 
may be soldiery without a battle^ there must be sol- 
diers in a battle ; no man can helieve himself into con- 



Service and Reward. 25 

quest over the weakest foe, unless he has taken 
measures to vanquish him. Faith will remove 
mountains, but faith without hands is impotent. It 
cannot exist, at least when it cannot be said of the 
subject what Christ said of Mary — '''sJie hath done 
ichat she coiclcV^ 

The best thino^ that we can do, who feel that we 
have made a more miserable failure of life than any 
one else — that we ought, perhaps, to apologize to all 
the rest of mankind for having been born — instead 
of doing so, is to hunt up something to do for them ; 
and the greater self-abnegation we feel, the more 
menial the service we are willing to render, and the 
more actively we engage in such service, the sooner 
we will forget the Regent at whose shrine we suffer^ 
and for whose fall we bleed. Better this by far, 
than to sit moping amid the dust and ashes of our 
Withered hopes, fretting to the end of the journey 
over the wreck of our burnt-out lives. 

But in order to render valuable service in this 
conflict, the first thing is, to conquer self. 

2 



26 Service ant> Eeward. 

We find ourselves in a state of vassalage to a 
foreign rule, and in a perfect whirl of obeisance to 
the power that enslaves us — a strange intricacy, a 
kingdom inside a realm, a principality accessory to 
a power, the potency of self-tributary to the suprem- 
acy of Satan. What true nature can take a correct 
outlook, a true estimate of bearings, and not be 
aroused into rebellion ? Every ray of light strug- 
gling through the trammels of his enslaved being 
urges him to " declare war ^^^ andwhen he has con- 
quered self he has taken a city, and is ready to fly 
to the aid of his brother vassal, and thus the king- 
dom is to be taken for Christ. 

With such an enemy, such a leader, and such a 
conquest, who would not enlist, who would not 
only sing — 

*' Equip me for the war, 

And teach my hands to fight." 

but cheerfully take on the whole armor. ^^But," 
says one, "how are we to take on the armor and 
equip us for the war, when we do not know what is 



Service and Reward. 27 

needed, what part of the work will be assigned us ? 
Are we to be footmen or cavalry^ privates or lead- 
ers? ^'^ When love to God and love to self ^ve about 
equal powers in the heart, the soul has some choice 
as to the use the Good Master shall make of it, but 
when self dies, and love i*eigns, then its crj is : 
'^Anywhere, Lord, only so I am called of Thee ! A 
plow, a hari^ow, or a sickel ! or, if need be, a feeble 
broken horn, dangling from some obscure nail, only 
so that when I am used I call thy workmen to- 
gether." 

And this is all that is implied in taking on the 
armor. If we can bring ourselves into a willing- 
ness to volunteer, there is a power that will soon 
take our measure as to equipments and position- 
If we keep our hearts in such condition before God 
as to be susceptible to the impressions and leadings 
of his spirit, there is not a child so feeble or so 
small in stature as not to be able to enter some de- 
partment of service and take on the armor. 

When the Good Master was on the earth, he 



28 Service and Reward. 

made an appraisement of true service, and rendered 
this verdict of valuation : " Well, thou good servant, 
thou hast been faithful in a very little^ have thou 
authority over ten cities/' 

How many of us have S23ent almost a lifetime 
aspiring to the " ten cities/' when we have had no 
claim upon our Leader for having conquered one 
little realm — the Mngdom of self. 

We stoop and groan and wrestle, perhaps, to re- 
move our personal difficulties ^4nto the midst of the 
sea,'' when we have not so much as turned our hand 
towards lifting the mountain crushing the life out 
of our brother. 

If we could keep right on taking hard things out 
of the lives of others, we would soon find our 
mountain gone. 

They who, dying to self, think only of those 
around them, taking the lone peculiar path for 
Christ's sake, will soon find themselves enthroned 
in a kingdom of hearts that will love them for the 



Service j.nd Eu^fARD. 29 

sake of Jesus, and we Kshould not desire to be loved 
for any other. 

It is so easy for us to cushion our selfish desires, 
Avelcoming them in our hearts until they render us 
morally and socially lean and near-sigJited — so nat- 
ural to allow selfishness to preside in the domain of 
our sorrows — to permit our self-tastes, like house 
flies, first to feed from the dainties of feeling and 
perception — that surely " a diyine sentence was in 
the lips" of him who said — " He that trusteth in 
his o\Yn heart is a fool ; but whoso walketh wisely, 
he shall be delivered/^ 



30 



Service aisti Eeward. 




Chapter Y. 

The Personality of Satan. 

jEOM what has been said in the previous 
chapters, it is evident that the second qual- 
ification necessary for useful service is to 
become acquainted with our foe. We must believe 
in his personality. 

"Sister F ,'' said a marked Cristian lady to 

me once, " I find that this battle with Satan is a 
hand to hand tug/' and, after spending part of a 
season with her, I came to understand what she 
meant. 

When things culminated ; when the boys were 
careless, the girls impatient, the baby cross, and 
cook had burnt the breakfast ; when husband, dear 
loving creature, metamorphosed by circumstances 
into a great cross hear^ spiced up scenes by various 
undevout exclamations, enough to make Kitty's 



Service and Reward. 31 

head whirl with confusion, I came to know, that, in- 
stead, her quiet, patient soul was on the very verge 
of victory for Jesus. Not a word escaped her lips. 
With her, every emotion had gone into silent prayer. 

Sometimes, when the excitement was highest, 
(in the midst of a meal,) she would say, '' There has 
been enough of this spirit manifested now. Let us 
pray.^^ 

Upon all following her to their knees, her peti- 
tions ascended until her husband wept, and the 
children were docile as lambs. Once, after such a 
turn, she said to me, '^ Satan overdid things this 
morning. See this atmosphere, how light ! Hear 
these children's voices 7i0Wy soft and clear-toned as 
a bell, for heaven. Praise the Lord !" 

On another occasion, she said to me, " The enemy 
forsees sometimes that there is to be something 
done for God in a family, so he forestalls it, by get- 
ting up just such a rumpus as this ; but, with the 
grace of God to keep me quiet^ and Christ on my 
side, I am determined he shall have a hard time in 



32 Service A]^d Eeward. 

keeping my husband and children out of the king- 
dom.'' 

As I looked into the tranquil face of this light- 
hearted Christian woman, I realized how it were 
possible for ^'one to chase a thousand, and two to put 
ten thousand tofiighty 

But we must not only believe in the personality 
of Satan, we must also understand his peculiar 
mode of attack. 

Our engagement with him is not one so much of 
actual comhatj as of vigilance. 

As often as we are told to pray, we are told also 
to watch. And this because our foe is not an open 
field enemy, but one in ambush, a sly, designing, 
maneuvering antagonist, equal to the mettle of the 
bravest Christian. He is unprincipled. He takes 
advantage of infirmity and absence of mind. He 
studies our weak side, and at this point makes 
attack. He dislikes nothing so much as being de- 
tected in his movements. A thoroughly established 
Christian gentleman said on one occasion, '' When I 



Service A:NrD Reward. 33 

become the subject of any feelino^ of unaccountable 
uneasiness or unpleasantness, I ask myself three 
questions : Am I sick or well ? Have I been off 
my guard ? In other words, am I under condem- 
nation, and is this state of feeling, and these sugges- 
tions, Ukely to be of divine or satanic origin? 

" I remember once,'' said he, ^Ho have vanquished 
Satan in this way : I had for several successive 
mornings risen with a peculiarly languid, hungry 
feeling, always attended with the suggestion of 
earthly disaster, loss of property, death of friends, 
or failure of health, together with a prompting to 
impatience. 

" I began to inquire as to the cause of these 
thoughts in the early morning, and at no other 
time in the day. Why is it always when I am 
weak and hungry? I was not conscious of having 
done anything to grieve God. 

'' I believed that the Good Father would not pain 
me with such goadings as these, even if some mis- 
fortune were near. Then I knew the spirit, I said 



34 Service and Reward. 

to the enemy, ' Just please to call around about 
eleven o'^ clock to-day^ and I will talk imth youJ^ 

'^ Many a day has come to eleven o'clock since 
then/' he continued^ '" but I have never been assailed 
in the same way. He knew now, that I looked for 
him when I was weak and hungry, and he never 
came." 

I once had an intimate friend, who became much 
concerned upon the subject of the " Higher life^ 
She felt that she was called to advance, but she 
could not make consecration, which she recognized 
as Ifier "part of the work. In an unexpected way she 
was conducted to a place where she fell in with 
another branch of the church, a people so plain and 
neat, so fully consecrated and happy, that, to the 
mind of their visitor, they might have died, been 
buried, and like their Blessed Master, risen again 
the third day. In spirit, this was true of some of 
them, having died to the world and risen again in a 
life hidden within Christ. While among this people, 
she was enabled to give up all. She felt that she 



Service akd Eeward. 35 

was accepted, and had rest On the night following 
she was wakeful, but calm, when suddenly the 
suggestion came to her to leave her church — the 
church of her parents and friends, and unite with 
these people. Then came the question, '^ Will you 
doit for God?" ''But God," she replied, ''does' 
not wish me to do so ; I can do more for him among 
my own people." She had never had much faith in 
the personality of the devil, did not believe in his 
omnipresence, attributing all sin to our inbred na- 
ture, corrupted, of course, through the agency of 
Satan ; but at that time was conscious of an un- 
comfortable presence. The more she insisted that 
the Lord did not want her to leave her church, the 
closer the presence came, impressing her that conse- 
cration was not complete unless she was willing. 
She sought the Lord, to know his will and was soon 
made to see what she had not thought of before, 
that this was Satan^s test^ and that he was doing it 
to destroy her peace. She says she was never more 
conscious of the departure of anyone than she was 



36 



Service A:NrD Reward. 



of his leaving her on that occasion, when, by the 
aid of the Spirit, she was enabled to detect him in 
his design. 




I 



Service ai^d Eeward. 37 



Chapter YI. 
Satan as an Accuser. 




N^LY he, who first betrayed us into sin, is 
capable of accusation^ hence it is not only 
necessary for us to understand his peculiar 
mode of attack, but we must be able also to recog- 
nize Ms voice. The burial spot of many a truly noble 
man and women is surmounted with the forlorn ep- 
itaph, " a suicide^^^ because Satan would not suffer 
them to close the volume of past experience Ions; 
enough to get it under the blood. I think the enemy 
is never better pleased than when he can continually 
call up to us the body of our past sins, like some 
skeleton exhumed from the catacombs, to frighten 
our souls from Christ, or when he can so follow and 
harrass a child of time with some memory of past 
imprudence or unkindness, as that he will drop into 
a sort of imbecility of soul, rendering him incapable 



38 Seryice ant> Reward. 

of recognizing the goodness of Christ in His sacri- 
fice for sin, and His willingness to save from its 
sting. In the lives of many, the mistakes of yes- 
terday darken the sun of to-day, close the avenues 
of feeling to the sweetness and freshness of life, 
sealing the soul to despair. Failing to wash in the 
"rain in the sweet heavens^'^ that would render them 
whiter than snow, they find " no halm in Oilead^ no 
physician there.'^'^ Why not " forget the things that 
are behind, and press to those beyond ?'' But then 
it is not only the province of Satan to accuse^ but it 
is his special delight to imbue us with such spirit 
towards each other. A reproof rendered in sharp, 
revengeful, stinging words, is not the overflow of a 
pure, restful heart. 

" Why don't you scold me, mother, as you used 
to?" said a boy to a parent, who for years had been 
seeking deliverance from a spirit of impatience. " I 
could stand that, but such tears and kindness as 
you have brought to bear upon me for about three 
months I cannot resist.'' /^ Then," said the lady, 



Service ant> Reward. 39 

" I first realized bow fully God had answered prayer, 
and the effect upon my boy was marvelous." 

Bishop Simpson's fifth lecture before the students 
of Yale contains a beautiful thought in the lang^uage. 
of Francis DeSales, ^^I would give a hundred ser- 
pents for one dove." 

There is a significant fact in the example of Christ 
which it would be well for us to imitate. He was 
not an accuser. He was never in haste. 'No mat- 
ter what the transgression or aggravation to sharp 
speaking, His moderation was known to all. In 
personal insult He healed the ear of His enemy. 
In gross transgression He wrote upon the ground, 
then said to the sinning, " JVeither do I condemn tJiee^ 
go and sin no more." He always had time, in ad- 
ministering a rebuke, to hunt up an allegory or 
speak in parables, and he did it in such sweet spirit 
that His enemies were compelled to say, " We find 
no fault in Him." 

Stinging reproof, rankling in the memory, has 
embittered the lives of many, driving them from 



40 Service a:n^d Keward. 

bad to worse, until, finally, prison doors closed upon 
them, shutting out the light of hope. In the mem- 
ory of others, the spirit of tender correction, like a 
pure white dove, has become enthroned, helping its 
willing subjects to noble lives and honorable 
achievement. 




Service aistd Eeward. 



41 




Chapter YII. 
Our JEnemy as a Spiritual Detective or Spy. 

1^ the lives of some, there comes a time 
when Satan seems to have desired them 
at the hands of God, that he might '* sift 
them as wheat." But more generally he is in am- 
bush, coming unsuspectedly, disguised. When we 
re-consecrate ourselves to God, Satan also re-dedi- 
cates himself to the work of our souPs destruction. 
He makes tests which sometimes seem Ghrist-like, as 
in the instance last mentioned. Every stage in the 
Christian's experience is tested, no doubt, at least 
every new consecration, not to prove to God that 
His work in us is good, for He knows, without any 
evidence, whether we will stand or fall, yet we are 
tried by positive tests to convince us that our work 
is of God, and in this " Satan conies also.^^ 

Two loving spirits, who were seeking together to 



42 Service akd Eewarb- 

get fully to Christ, desiring especially to enter into 
a quiet life of trust, resolved one morning to seek 
strength to do so by fasting and prayer. After the 
breakfast hour they came together, when an ac- 
cusation was put into the mouth of one of theni, 
and a sharp retort fell from the lips of the other. 
This condition of things was a matter of surprise 
to both. The one retired to her room, the other 
who had made the attack remaining down stairs. 
With strong faith in the personality of Jesus, and 
but little knowledge of the wiliness of the enemy, 
she breathed her trouble to her Heavenly Friend in 
thoughts like these: ^*^ Dear Saviour ! What is the 
occasion of this ? Thou knowest that I love my 
sister, that I would not willingly wound her. Shew 
me, I pray Thee, why we feel in this way.'' Sud- 
denly she became convinced of the agency of Sa- 
tan. She flew to her sister's room, and found her 
in tears. He who had betrayed them into sinning 
had now turned accuser^ and was helping the latter 
to write bitter things against herself. Said she: 



i 



Service akd Reward. 43 

^'I have just been thinking, Beth, that Mary Mag- 
dalene had sev)en devils, and I have monopolized 
them all, or I could not have answered you so.'' 

'^And I, on the other hand, sister dear, have, come 
to take hack what I said, and to tell you my con- 
victions. Our Saviour was tempted in the wilder- 
ness, when he was ahungered, and this was Satan^s 
attack upon us^ to make us lose all we might gain 
by fasting and consecration. See his cunning ; he 
came in the guise of a spiritual adviser, as my cen- 
sure of you was occasioned by a feeling that you 
were delinquent in duty^ the very thing that we were 
both trying to avoid, but if neither of us had spoken 
under the pressure, Satan could not, as he has done, 
accuse us of sin.'' 



44 Service a:n^d Keward. 



Chapter YIII. 
Uvidence and Testimony. 




JSrOTHER requisite to successful warfare 
is to know where we are in the Divine 
life — our position relative to the enemy. 
We will not need an encyclopaedia or a com- 
mentary to find it out. We can discover it by the 
aid of our chart, the Bible, and the light of the 
Spirit. We may know just where we stand. 

The written experience of one woman is this : " I 
know just where I am in the Christian life to-day. 
Friends asked me once, in late years, after I be- 
came indifferent, 'Are you a CliristianT I said, 
' 1^0 ; there is something lacking. The church 
could have all the world of such Christians as I am, 
and not be one whit the better. I ought to be out 
of it. I have lost communion with Christ, and 
power to work for God, or to prevail with Him.' 



Service aistd Reward. 45 

But the church did not believe it. They thought I 
did not know. In several years I became ashamed, 
and alarmed at the thought of having a name to 
live, yet being dead, and I remember well the very 
hour I commenced dying to the world and living 
again to Christ. I thought, ' I will try to come to 
the light by perfect consecration.' But I could not 
bear it. I saw pictures not pleasant, but hideous 
pictures of natural deformity. I turned away, and 
tried to feel indifferently, but I could not. I looked 
again. I said : ' By the help of God, I will ferret 
out this matter. I will probe to the very quick of 
my evil nature.' And I think the Spirit helped me 
to get a view. I saw ambition, idolatry, selfish- 
ness, temper, suspicion, and, worst of all, I felt that 
I was living a lie. When I first took in and com- 
prehended the whole scene, I could not realize it as 
my canvas. There must be some mistake. I could 
not be the unworthy i^ag that picture represented. 
I did not mean to have such things in my life, but 
they had come. Then Satan came.'' 



46 Service ai^d Reward. 

He always does come to the soul that is trying 
to move towards Christ, either by repentance, jus- 
tification, consecration, or sanctification. He dreads 
nothing so much as to see us die to earth, and get 
into the highway to glory. It cuts off his supplies, 
and gives him little opportunity for successful at- 
tack. It is his business to keep us groveling in the 
nether-paths as long as possible. So he came to 
the subject of this narrative, and said to her: 
" You will have to confess, and this will be a beau- 
tiful picture to show to the world — the one Christ 
has just shown you of yourself, and unless you con- 
fess, you can never get into the kingdom.'' 

^^ I had been brought to this point a great many 
times, but was unwilling to apprehend the truth — 
could not follow the light, so lost it. 

" Then God gave me terrible discipline. I knew 
why. A prayer of faith had been offered, when I 
was but a child, by my mother, for the final salva- 
tion of my soul, and that prayer, although she had 
been dead many years, was still ringing in the ears 



Service ais^d Eewabd. 47 

of the Eternal. So I passed under the rod, and he 
brought me up to that place where I had no alterna- 
tive, other than to yield or sink. I cried : ^ O ! save 
me from self^ and from pride that would ru4n my 
soul.' Then came Satan again, (but I knew not 
that it %oas Satan.) ^But how about that confes- 
sion ? Are you willing to parade your sins before 
the world?' Then I said : " I am %oilling. Lord^ I 
am thine! Jesus ivill taJce care of His own. I will 
con/ess as God leads.^ '' [At this point, who was her 
accuser? Surely not Jesus. He is not the accuser 
of His people, neither does he desire them to place 
m the possession of others that which will make 
them their accusers. All that Jesus requires of a 
soul in the way of confession to the world, is to 
make restitution, (if they have wronged any one, 
by word or deed,) for personal injury. However, 
if this is the point of stumbling to some seeker for 
light — and it is often the case with souls struggling 
to get into the way of true devotion — covenant to 
do even all that 8atan suggests as possible, for 



48 Service akd Reward. 

Jesus, and he will flee from you, so sorry for having 
made the suggestion as not to call soon again. He 
cannot stand sentinel long at a point we are willing 
to surrender to Christ.] She continues: '^ Light 
broke into my soul, and it was surprising how easily 
I could bear it. I saw myself just the same, but 
Jesus had taken away the sting. I felt as if I had 
been lifted out of myself for a few moments, and 
that for the whirlwind and maelstrom of distress, 
Christ had given me a ' great calm.' I had rest, 
perfect rest ! '' — that which she most needed. When 
we are willing to do all we can by consecration, the 
Lord will do His part of the work perfectly^ and we 
need not be exercised as to its name. He will give 
us just what we need. Consecrating^ or '' setting 
apart,'' is our part of the work, and just as we are 
willing to obey God in doing this. He accepts, and 
does His work. 

The only thing that renders God's work in us 
gradual and incomplete, is that we die slowly^ to self 
and the world. If, in justification, we are all dead^ 



Service and Reward. 49 

then Christ, in forgiving past transgression, can go 
further — can wash ns clean, can make us every whit 
whole, and, I doubt not, he does sometimes ; but 
if upon receiving the pardon of past sin, some duty 
is pi'esented before unthought of, and the " shrinking 
flesh complains '' until it grieves God, how can this 
w^ork continue, until we answer the requirements by 
consecration. Hence our leanness. The work God 
calls us to do is for His glory, not ours. How then, 
w^hen he calls us to some work that requires great 
uprightness and strength of soul to hold us steady 
and uncontaminated in its pursuance, are we to ex- 
pect the yower if w^e are unwilling to do the work ? 
God does not do these things simply to make us 
happy. While His great heart yearns for us. He 
has higher motives in his demands upon us in our 
elevation and righteousness than simply to relieve 
us of our old body of sin, and to have us enjoy our- 
selves. There is something for us to do, and if we 
want the holy baptism that will clean us up, and 
make us so strong in the Lord, and pure, that God 

3 



50 Service ai^d Reward. 

will not be afraid to trust us, we must consecrate 
to give up (he old man carnality — to do anything 
God wants us to do. 

All that we can do, and what we must do if we 
would advance, is to consecrate^ ahide^ and trustingly 
follow^ remembering always that God does not re- 
quire of us anything unnatural, anything contrary 
to a spirit of true affection, neatness in attire, clean- 
liness, or diligence m honest business. When He 
calls us to consecrate, (for his spirit woos and as- 
sists as when we are willing to do so,) to the letting 
go of our families. He does not mean that we shall 
forsake them, but that we shall, in all these things, 
give Him the 'preference^ and it sometimes creates 
hard death struggles m our nature to do this. 

There is no man or woman in any branch of the 
church, who is unworthy of it, that does not know 
it. 

What constitutes the church to-day ? Why, that 
which hallowed the Altar and the Temple in the days 
of Moses and the prophets, the presence of the She- 



i 



Service ant> Eeward. 51 

Tcinah^ and no one should rest contentedly in the 
church unless he is consecrated to be all the Lord's, 
or is willing to become thus consecrated, much less 
partake of the Lord's supper. 

'' For this reason/' says the apostle, " many are 
sickly among you, and some sleep. Ye have par- 
taken of Christ's body, and drank of His blood of 
remembrance unworthily." 

At this point, at different times in my life, when 
in a sort of desperate or indifferent state, I think I 
grieviously sinned, and when I became convinced of 
it I refused to engage in this church ordinance. It 
is a solemn thing to partake of the Lord's Supper, 
and, unless like the disciples, we are willing to for- 
sake all and follow him, we should not do so, and 
we all know whether we are willing or not. 

There are no "ravenous beasts in this way." These 
can consume our souls only when we go wandering 
out of the way. There are no reproaches, there are 
no back-bitings, there is no deceit, there is no tu- 
mult in the heart that is resting in God ; and when 



52 Service ant> Reward. 

we get into this condition of soul we know where 
we are. It is a safe and plain way^ and wayfaring 
men, though fools, need not err therein. 

The cause of Closer Living is injured in two ways : 
First, by argument and quibbling among professors 
about terms^ and loj false profession. One says, 
God's work is good from the beginning to the end. 
When our sins are gone, we are sanctified to a cer- 
tain extent. Very well, if he only continues in that 
state of justification. 

Another, who has been consistent for years, par- 
doned and consecrated, yet whose mind has been 
like the troubled sea in seeking light and truth, is 
quieted. His friends can date the change to the very 
hour. He does not believe in sanctification as a sec- 
ond, distinct work, yet gives in his testimony thus : 
" Was converted when a young man ; have been 
trying to serve God ever since ; six years ago God 
settled me ; since that time the way has been glo- 
rious." 

Yery well, then, let us call it settling^ but for 



I 



Service akd Reward. 53 

the sake of Christ and His cause, and our own peace 
of soul, let us get and heep the settling. To some of 
us this term expresses the want in our natures per- 
fectly. In the experience of every Christian called 
to work, and willing to follow, there comes a climax 
when he must cut clean for Jesus, when, with his 
convictions, it would be cowardly to stand still or 
to recede. This man needed just one thing more to 
make him a power for good, the " settling ^^^ and God 
gave it to him. 

There are three things that we must all have : 
Justification, the spirit of consecration, and the 
settling ; and if we have not attained to these things, 
let us, for the sake of the " world that lieth in wick- 
edness,'' stop quibbling about terms long enough to 
get them, accepting as we are led. If to one mind 
it comes as justification continued^ let him hold on 
to that, professing as he conceives it to be ; if to 
another it comes in the sense of cleansing^ to another 
rest, to another " perfect love,'' or elevation into a 
^'higher life," or into '^the rest of faith," let them 



54 



Seeyice and Rewaed. 



hold on to it without doubting or argument, know- 
ing that there is no surer way of losing ground than 
by " measuring themselves among themselves." 
Let us all, '' without wrath or doubting/' press on to 
the excellency attainable through Christ. And then, 
as to profession^ one thing is certain ; while we are 
not to put our candle under a bushel, we are not to 
set it upon a candlestick until we get it lighted. 

Let us be sure we have the light before we worry 
about " letting it shine.^'' It is to be feared some- 
times that there is more " shining '' done than God 
intends, from the fact that in a few instances, per- 
haps, it is borrowed light. If we will let God lead. 
He will make His work definite in our hearts ; He 
will show us what we need, and we will Jcnow what 
we have. It is certainly erroneous leading to urge 
profession of any state of grace upon any one, 
prompting, " Speak, sister, you have it ! That's it, 
brother, speak! Thafs it^ testify!'' When the 
blessed Spirit alone can tell me when I have found it. 

When it does so, it is time enough to testify, 



Service a:n"d Eeward. 55 

but not until then, and men and women speak- 
ing thus will not be likely to bring reproach upon 
the cause of Christ. There is something that can 
hold us, loving and true, gentle, quiet, patient 
resting, lenient, and sweet in our souls, not only in 
our parlors, studies, and libraries, but also in our 
counting-rooms, school-rooms, dining-rooms, kitch- 
ens, and nurseries. This is something that we all 
want, and something that we will recognize when 
we get it. 

Oh, blessed state! Oh, glorious religion! that will 
not only conduct me to the throne of the eternal, 
and break upon my ear the dulcet strains of heavenly 
harmony, but that will hold me amidst the thunder- 
ings and gratings of earth, and the tumultuous com- 
motions of time. We very prettily and very truth- 
fully sing — 

*' There is a land that is fairer than day, 
By faith its delights we explore." 

But many of us have not the most remote idea 
that anything short of dying can introduce us to its 



56 Service a^d Keward. 

shores. How grateful an occasional outburst of in- 
spiration like the following : 

** I've reached the land of corn and wine, 
And all its riches freely mine : 
Here shines undimmed one blissful day, 
For all my night hath passed away." 




I 



Service and Reward. 



57 




Chapter IX. 

Tlie Nature of Service Bender ed — Keeping the Lips. 

|E must remember that while om- foe is 
noisy in result, he is silent in design, and 
if we would foil him, we must meet him 
in his own way — ^in silent service. 

Some one says " a thought expressed loses half its 
weight'^'' If this be true, it arms our thoughts to 
keep them silent. Another says ^'it gives Satan 
great advantage to talk too loudly of our plans. It 
is best to let him know as little as possible about 
us. ^o more can he endure to hear praise to God 
upon the lips, so I make it a habit each morning 
upon rising to repeat aloud three times : 'Praise the 
Lord! Praise the Lord! Praise the Lord !'^^^ "When 
we are fully consecrated, with a willingness to hold 
stilly it is so much easier for God to vanquish Satan 



58 Service ais^d Reward. 

in his dominion over us. If the sisters referred to 
in the seventh chapter had not had their will on the 
side of Christ, the victory of the enemy over them 
would have been complete, and, although they gave 
expression to the suggestion of the evil one, yet, 
through the power of God in them, Jesus found 
easy conquest in their willingness to confess. Thus 
their trial led by the way of deep humiliation into 
greater grace and glory ; but had they horne tempta- 
tion quietly^ they might have had the glory without 
the Tiumiliation. 

A certain woman was disheartened by misdemeanor 
on the part of a boy to whom she was both teacher 
and guardian. They were at tea in the society of 
a friend, and the transgression was a repetition of a 
habit for which she had reproved him severely many 
times. ISTow she decided to correct him kindly, and 
commend his case to God. Immediately upon con- 
cluding thus, she felt a pity and love for him coming 
into her heart which was surprising to her, as she 
had always before felt loathing for his conduct, and 



Service and Reward. 59 

impatient with his obstinacy. N^othing was said 
between them on the subject until one morning, after 
performing several acts of kindness towards his 
teacher, the boy began : 

" Oh, teacher, wasn't it perfectly outrageous the 
way I acted when Miss F was here? I can- 
not see what makes me so persistent when I get 
started. Just as sure as I tell the Lord I'm going 
to be good, I feel and act worse than ever. What 
can be the reason." 

''It is perfectly natural,'' said his teacher, "for 
this reason : Satan hears your vow, and straightway 
applies himself to have you break it. If he can 
create a spirit of disobedience in you, and thus 
through you lead me into a feeling of anger and 
revenge, he accomplishes a double work. If, when 
these temptations come, we remain q^iiet so that God 
has only Satan to manage, and not us^ he will soon 
bring Mm to terms, and this is what is implied in 
doing hattlefor the Lord. If the suggestions of the 
evil one find a response in our hearts, the Lord has 



60 Service and Reward. 

two battles, one to conquer Satan, the other to con- 
quer us, and we gather no strength. We must 
learn two things, Charley : One is to know the voice 
of our enemy ^ the other to look for our Father to yan- 
quish him. It is not intended that we shall do it at 
all, even Michael dared not hring a railing accusa- 
tion against MmP 

'^All you have said is true," replied the boy, " and 
I hope hereafter I shall do better.'' 

Volumes of caution and stern rebuke could not 
in years have effected in that boy's feeling and con- 
duct what the sweet spirit of Christ accomplished 
in two days, when his guardian was willing to 
quietly submit the case to Him with whom all things 
are possible. 

The mother with a large family of children, nat- 
urally boisterous, need not expect to influence them 
for good, unless she first learns to control her own 
spirit. 

The strongest weapons of a soul in conflict are 
silence and 'prayer. We do something, perhaps, 



Service aistd Reward. 61 

that wounds our self-respect, and instead of going 
with it to the Lord, we allow Satan, who here comes 
in the guise of a spiritual monitor, making us be- 
lieve that to cover up our wrong- doing is hypocrisy 
and sin, to expose us, with open moutli^ to censure? 
by way of confession to those who, if they have 
not been subject to the same weakness and sins, 
most likely have had others equally obnoxious to 
our heavenly Father, God pity us ! He almie can 
help us ! 

Why not rather let him lift us out of ourselves, 
above the thought of what others would think of 
us if they only Tcnew. "What matter, dear reader, what 
others may know of you, if you are only in such 
condition of heart that He, whose pure eye cannot 
look upon sin with the least degree of allowance, 
speaks to your consciousness, ^^ neither do I condemn 
thee.'' Be assured to attempt your own vindication 
is only the tempter's scheme to lead you into dark- 
ness, confusion, and unrest. 

What wonder when we wander away from Jesus 



62 Service and Reward. 

to others for sympathy and help, (feehng our sur- 
roundings and sounding our friends,) that God, in 
mercy, lets us get an occasional stab that will send 
us to His feet, imploring for the help that the best 
friend on earth cannot give, or if giving, whose soul, 
no purer perhaps than our own, yet not able to bear 
the test of our sin, will fall away from us in doing 
for us. 

■ Again, by a seeming or real deviation, some sen- 
sitive soul is at the mercy of his fellows. He is dex- 
terously turned, and swiftly dissected. His name 
is rolled like a sweet morsel under the gossip's 
tongue. This is an occasion upon which Satan gets 
out all his artillery ; every little emissary is enlisted. 
It is interesting to witness the hands up and feet 
flying, eager to enter the chase. 

^ow, if there is nothing for him to adjust by way 
of restitution or confession of injury to others, let 
him Tceep silence^ trusting in God and he will sud- 
denly come forth bright as the sun, and I should not 
wonder, if, with heaven on his side, '^terrible to his 



Service aistd Reward. 63 

enemies as an army with banners." On tlie con- 
trary, let him talk it ovei\ let him go to neighbor G. 
for comfort, complain of his accusers to B., assert 
his innocence to L., or^ if guilty, explain and apol- 
ogize to S., and confused in a chorus of voices of 
"he says,'' "she says," and "they say," he will 
early discover that he has, for his pains, the com- 
panionship ofichrffets^ with the prospect of soon be- 
coming as much of a dog as any of them. 

Truly what prudence is to valor, silence is to con- 
quest — the better part. 

It is best, when we are reviled, to " revile not 
again," but rather, like our blessed Lord, to " open 
not our mouth." 

Better, even when our motives are impugned, and 
we are suJBfering wrongfully, not to explain, as, in 
most cases, in so doing we implicate others. Let 
us rather, in all cases, submit such difficulties to 
Him whose Word commands, "Beloved, avenge not 
yourselves. Will not Grod avenge His own elect 



64 Service aistd Reward. 

who cry unto Him day and night ? Yea, I say unto 
you He will avenge them speedily." 

So helpless is human nature, that it seems vain 
for church members to attempt to settle their own 
difficulties. If there is any place in the universe of 
being where Satan feels entirely at home, it is in the 
region of a church quarrel. On this mountain of 
difficulty he feels* like exclaiming, '^ It is good for us 
to he here P^ He, too, wants " to build tabernacles,'' 
feeling sure that he will find Peters enough to deny 
their Lord in filling them for battle^ and it is won- 
derful how many are ready at times, to drop in with 
him. Satan's personality is nevermore perceptible 
than on such occasions. Let us make a note. These 
difficulties nearly always follow a season of revival 
influence in a community, and the more wide-spread 
and deep the religious conviction, the more general 
will be the dissatisfaction, and the more abrupt the 
collision. At such times a spirit of quietness is pro- 
pitious. One dear, old, sweet-faced, humble. Chris- 
tian woman, endowed with the Holy Ghost, who 



Service and Eeward. 65 

never '^ takes up a reproach against her neighbor," 
nor allows any one else to do so, '^an tone out all the 
discordancy, and pat down all the quirks of evilness 
that the enemy can put into one congregation. If 
only somebody^ in the general upheaving, is willing 
to he quiet^ w^illing, no matter how much he is 
wounded, to be blind, and deaf, and 4a^nb for Christ's 
sake, willing, for the sake of the cause, to die to a 
spirit of retaliation and i^evenge, he will soon be re- 
warded by finding EmanuePs conquest easy, and 
Satan " pitching his tent '' where he can find more 
congenial quarters. One little sunbeam in the Sab- 
bath school, a young child keeping up a steady light 
for Jesus, one fixed star of Christian propriety in 
the church, some venerable father pointing ever to- 
ward the place where '^the young child was^^^ the 
manger of blessedness and peace, is sufficient to lead 
many " wise men '' with " their treasures '' into '' the 
house of God,'' and to keep Satan from settling in 
any community. 

Alas for the spirit that continually returns to the 



66 Seryice AisTD Eeward. 

slumbering ashes of an old difficulty, and for self- 
gratification fans its embers until an entire organi- 
zation of innocent church members are plunged into 
a perfect tornado of fire and smoke, where, in order 
that one individual may have his wrongs properly 
avenged, all must suffer from the burning. What 
quietness it would bring to the bulwarks of Zion, 
and what rest to the feet of the beloved watchmen 
on its walls, if instead of arraying the tyrant self 
against others in defense of our rights, we were all 
'' on the wing '' for that heaven of love, filled with an 
atmosphere of charity that " seeketh not her own, is 
not easily provoked, thinketh no evil.'' 



Service and Reward. 



67 



Chapter X. 
A. Word to the Burdened. 




ITH such a faith in the Invisible, as to be 
able to keep his hand in the darkest night, 
^] we shall prevail in this service against the 
powers of infidelity. To the eye of faith, every 
dispensation carries with it the fragrance of flowers 
— the blossom and development of Divine fruition. 
Then, dear reader, let us, by way of true conse- 
cration, put our hand in His, and following closely, 
lean hard on Him who says, " I will bring the blind 
by a way they knew not, I will lead them in paths 
that they have not known, I will make darkness 
light before them, and crooked things straight ; these 
things will I do unto them, and not forsake them." 
Then we will realize the preciousness of His word : 
" He was their Saviour ; in all their afflictions. He 
was afflicted, and the angel of His presence saved 
them ; in His love, and in His pity. He redeemed 
them," — Isa. 63 : 8, 9. And that other word : " He 



68 Service aj^t> Reward. 

that toucheth you. toucheth the apple of His eye." 
— Zech. 2 : 8. And again : " Be careful for noth- 
ing ; but in everything, by prayer and supplication, 
with thanksgiving, let your requests be made 
known unto God.'' — Phil. 4 : 6. 

Many of us, too heavily ladened, are shortening 
our journey to the Silent City. Borne down by 
weights in our hands and burdens upon our shoul- 
ders, we endure pressure of heart and mind which 
the loving Redeemer has been pleading all the way 
along to carry for us. 

Some of us, not content with taking upon our- 
selves the entire freightage of life's burdens, groan- 
ingly stoop to take up the way out of our diffi- 
culties. With our load upon us, we toil to hew out 
a path to a port of deliverance, instead of bending 
lowly to him who says, "lam the way^ And this 
does not mean simply the single blessing of spirit- 
ual good ; it implies, also, the " all things " we are 
to have through Christ. There is not a head so 
humble among souls, with all their interests, aboard 



Service and Reward. 69 

the ship for glory, as to hold unnumbered one hair 
of real earthly value. 

But there is one condition — Ave must be aboard 
flie ship with a willingness to cast overboard every- 
thing that may impede our passage. Then we will 
move with the vessel, and crosses and trials, instead 
of being the cargo, will prove sails wafting the 
cargo heavenward. When the will of God and his 
child run parallel there can be no cross. We suf- 
fer the cross only when malcing the ship of conse- 
cration. As long as we shrink from the cross we 
are not all ahoard. We are not dead — not hidden 
with Christ In order to get into this blessed con- 
dition, (and some of us are learning the lesson late,) 
we must render reasonable service — not that of bur- 
densome, toilsome weariness, but patient service. 
Christ says: "If ye abide in me, and my words 
abide in you, ye shall ash what ye will^ and it shall 
he done unto you.'^^ But it is a wonderfully glorious 
thing to " ahidey 

He that endures never realizes the ultimate of 



70 Service ant> Eewaed. 

temptation. It was when Christ had fasted forty 
days and forty nights in the wilderness that he was 
"afterward anhungered/' Up to this time He whose 
life was hidden with the Father was sustained in 
flesh by the ministry of angels. Even so are those 
ministered unto^ in times of depression, whose lives 
are hidden with Christ. It was not until food might 
soon become accessible to our Saviour that Satan was 
permitted to assail him with suggestions of "bread 
from stonesP We may know that glorious deliver- 
ance and perhaps precious work for Jesus is just at 
hand when we endure severe temptation. 

Is the body sufiering deprivation? Let us re- 
member how the Great King so equalized things in 
the Camp of Israel that those who gathered plen- 
tifully of the manna had only sufficient, while those 
who could gather but little had bountiful supply. 

So if in Christ we "endure''^ privation, He will re- 
move the want in our natures or supply the demand, 
though, to do so, he must send one man with the 
gift of wood to our door, and after him another to 



Service aistd Reward. 71 

buy it. The ways of Providence are mysterious, 
and the secrets of the Infinite past finding out. 
It were possible that the disposal of events He 
has for centuries held concealed in the surface of the 
earth that which at the time of fulfillment, will de- 
velop into vessels of gold with which to reward the 
confidence and honor the faith of one whom, in 
looking down through the vista of years. He dis- 
covers will prove a needy yet humble, trusting child. 

Perad venture in the heart of yonder century oak 
is hidden a jewel, first caught up in the divine ar- 
rangement by some adventurous bird and fastened 
in the tender root, which when the day of God's 
design is accomplished, will again be dug out and 
carried by a bright-winged messenger of promise to 
lift the head of one in the midst of dire temporal 
calamity whom God forsees will hold trustingly on. 

If he does not send real ravens to drop bits of 
flesh and food to his hungry children, he sends to 
those whose faith commands it loaves too large for 
birds to carry. 




72 Service a:n^d Eeward. 



Chapter XI. 

Nature of Service — Continued. 

lUTour service must not only be patient 
and enduring, it must also be continual. 
Blessings come to those who are always 
in service — those who are willing to follow in the 
vineyard of the Master's work where He shall lead? 
even where through the darkness they discover no 
prophecy of good result. He who was a willing 
captive in Babylon that he might eventually enjoy 
the companionship of princes, that his elevated 
spirit might be drawn into the council chamber of 
Deity to read in prophetic visions the destiny of 
nations — the beloved Daniel — walked not into the 
king's department with lighter tread or firmer foot- 
step than that which bore him into the den of lions. 
And why? Because it was part of the Master's 
service, and the owner of the vineyard was with 



Service aistd Eeward. 73 

him. Darius understood and expressed it " the God 
whom thoic servest continually. He will deliver thee.^^ 
See how easy for the King of kings to breathe a 
thought of conviction even into heathen minds that 
He would use as an instrument. The barbarous 
spirit of the Persian monarch became so disturbed 
in causmg the servant of the Most High to become 
the first victim of an arbitrary decree as to render 
food distasteful, music discordant, and the night 
sleepless. Truly Daniel's God did more than close 
the mouths of lions in His ordering of this great 
event, and just so will He bring victory to us out 
of dens and gutters and hovels — the scenes of con- 
iinual service. But this service must not only be 
jKitient and continual^ but it must also be liberal 
service. We must give according to God's pros- 
pering, not only from our basket, but of our sym- 
pathy. The burden must certainly drop from 
shoulders bending to lift the load or aid the infirm- 
ity of another. 

The Philippians walked with Paul through many 



74 Sehyice AisTD Reward. 

trials. They remembered him in bonds as being 
bound with him, so he wrote confidently to them, 
'^ Be careful for nothing, '' knowing that Heaven cares 
for those who spend time and means in caring for 
others. In one place he writes, speaking of tem- 
poral things, "' I^ow, ye Philippians, know also that 
in the beginning of the Gospel, when I departed 
from Macedonia, no church did communicate with 
me as concerning giving and receiving^ but ye only." 
In another place he writes of their sympathy, say- 
ing, " Ye have done well, that ye did communicate 
with my affliction." 

Lastly, let us go forth humbly, scattering seed 
as we go, that we may return with rejoicing, bring- 
ing our sheaves with us. The reason some of us 
work in darkness and uncertainty, not reaping as 
we go, is because our Heavenly Father cannot trust 
us to see our own sheaves — we are not in the proper 
condition of soul to know just how far God uses us. 
The way of patient, continual, liberal, consecrated, 
humble service is the only secure path, and they 



Service axd Eeward. 75 

who abide therein will find their feet resting npon 
the Eternal Rock, and their interests, tempoi^ally 
and spiritually, surrounded by walls of defense. 

What cared he whose all was in harbor with the 
Majesty of Heaven, for the fury of the wind Euro- 
clydon, and how much think ye did Paul fear the 
anchorless, trackless pathway of the deep, or heed 
the dismal wail of the tempest through the vessel, 
while in audience with the Eternal there rang 
through the chambers of his consciousness truths 
that should bring anchorage to the voyagers of all 
succeeding ages. Let us, therefore, those of us 
who have been leading unconsecrated lives in the 
wilderness of unbelief and discontent, perhaps mur- 
muring: at our leaders, and creatino; calves of wor- 
ship, get down straightway into the Canaan of 
Promise — ^the land of perfect love — into the real 
worship of Him who has said, "^ Come unto me, all 
ye that labor and are heavy ladened, and I will give 
you rest," and thus by the Spirit secure to our souls 
PauPs blessed assurance to those of Philippi,. " and 



76 



Service ant> Rewabd. 



the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, 
shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ 
Jesus/' 





Service ant> Reward. 77 

Chapter XII. 
Heward of Service — Resting in Jesus. 

j ^ the previous chapters we have dwelt par- 
ticularly on the nature and conditions of 
service ; now we will notice its reward. 
The motto of the Christian warrior is "victory 
through Christ.'' His compensation comes in quiet- 
ness and rest of soul^ poiver to prevail with the in- 
finite^ the glorification of the soul in thefiesh^ and the 
final consummation. 

Those who are fully committed to the cause of 
Christ are characterized by a quietness and sweet- 
ness of soul that can be found in no other path. 

I knew one so far ahead of me in the Christian 
journey that I never expect to see him in glory, 
unless I travel very fast. I saw him under a crush- 
ing trial, in the midst of the allies of Satan, pre- 
serve such sweetness of soul, such peace of mind, 



78 



Service ai^t> Reward. 



as to be able to say : " I believe I have to-day tasted 
something akin to the sufferings of our Saviour in 
Gethsemane, but Jesus Jceeps my soul as sweet as 
heaven.^'^ 

He who through weakness of the flesh naturally 
dreads the coming of a tempest, yet keeps looking 
steadily to the hill from whence his help cometh, 
will either find a thought coming into his heart in- 
ducing him to change his place, or that He who 
"tempers the wind to the shorn lamb " has changed 
the course of the storm, or that He has given him 
strength to bear it. 0)ie of these results must^ 
as God's word is true, crown the faith of the obe- 
dient trusting child. 

Little Seth N^ is six years old. He is trying to be 

a Christian. Through nearly all his young life he has 
been an invalid, and had acquired the habit of cry- 
ing, fretting almost incessantly. One day, a year 
ago, some one said to him " Sethy, dear, I know you 
feel weak and badly, but don't you think Jesus, who, 
when upon earth, took little children in His arms 



I 

I 



Service and Reward. 79 

and blessed them, could help you to keep a little 
more patient and quiet?" He thought a few 
moments, and then said ^' Yes ; I will ask him. " A 
few evenings later, he came to his mother saying : 
'' Mamma, Jesus lias taken every bit of the naughty 
away out of my heart, and the ' cry ' too. '' And it 
teas genuine holding. He quit crying entirely. 
He looks happy, and sings from morning till night : 

*'I am Jesus' little lamb, 
Happy aU the day I am ; 
He will wash me white as snow, 
For the Bible tells me so." 

There is no room amid the scenes of this service 
for a tattler, a meddler, or busybody. Those en- 
gaged in it are not always stepping up out of it into 
some sycamore tree to discover the skeleton at their 
neighbors' doors. J^ay, verily ! but all are so well 
pleased with their Leader, and have so much faith 
in His ability to organize and carry on His own 
work, and to select and engage His own workmen, 
that they have not even a suggestion to make about 
their brethren ; but, rather, if one stumble and fall, 



80 Service a:n^d Reward. 

hundreds of hearts bound forth in sympathy, and 
hundreds of hands reach down to help up the totter- 
ing child of error. 

The rest of the true Christian is not the lull of 
indiflPerenee. Julia Mcl^air Wright pens a beauti- 
ful picture of one who in Christian service has the 
unction. Her character may be one of fiction, or 
it may be real, as this quotation is a gem rescued 
from a torn leaf. Be it either, it is correct : ''1 mar- 
veled much at Hannah Dana while she was with 
us ; she is as short of speech, and as silent, as for- 
merly, but a new patience and compassionateness and 
experience have grown up in her heart, and I noticed 
that every one listened with careful attention to all 
that she said, and that she never wasted a word. I 
said one afternoon to Mr. Reid, as he chanced to be 
sitting near where I was at work, ' Has Hannah 
Dana changed, or have I altered so much in three 
years? She appears to me a very different person 
from what I thought her long ago.' Said Richard 
Reid : ' Hannah is one of the noblest natures that 



Service ai^d Eeward. 81 

God ever made. JS'o one can know her as well as 
I do without feelincr for her not merely respect, but 
reverence. To those who have seen her, as I have, 
risinc^ from the short sleep of stormy winter nights 
to bend over some sick man's pillow, and comfort 
him with words of the future he is winning for his 
children, or console him with hopes of heaven ; who 
have seen her tender as a mother to some dying 
boy ; who have beheld her brave as a man in the 
face of some fever maniac; who have watched her 
on the field of battle, when balls were flying around 
her, calmly binding up wounds, and giving water to 
thirsty lips ; who have heard her in the horrors of 
the night after a conflict praying by some expiring 
patriot on the bloody earth; who have seen her 
searching for life in the ghastly faces turned up to 
the sky — to these would Hannah Dana always ap- 
pear glorified as a saint. Strangers see her a woman 
prematurely old, weather-beaten, gray, plain, abrupt 
to those of us to whom she is not known as an 
angel of mercy." 




82 Service and Reward. 



Chapter XIII. 
Power to Prevail loith the Infinite. 

I ERSOJN^S in this service hold the audience 
of Deity. The true Christian learns of 
God not only through inspiration and Eev- 
lation, but he reads of Him in Nature's manuscripts 
and in the volume of Incident; and, as in the Book 
of Providence, he reads the precious dictations of 
His love, he learns to lean trustingly upon Him. 

A friend had under her care a young boy in whom 
she felt much interest. It was necessary one night, 
at a late hour, for him to go out upon an errand. 
Naturally timid, he started in fear and trembling. 
His friend, in sympathy for him, went to prayer 
that he migrht be relieved of all uncomfortable feelino:. 
She soon felt easy, knowing that her prayer was an- 
swered. Upon returning he said to her, ^^ You prayed 
for me while I was gone, didn't you?" ^^ Yes, my 
boy, but why do you ask:?'' '^Because," replied he, 



Service ant> Reward. 83 

'' all fear left me at the corner ; then I was overtaken 
by a man who went with me all the way ; I felt sure 
you were praying for me." 

Oh, the blessed intimations of His Fatherly ten- 
derness in these answers to faith and simple trust ! 

Much of the civilized world is under discipline, 
consequently in bondage, in response to prayer. 
For a century, perhaps, the petition of some humble 
soul, some highway traveler, who though dead yet 
speaketh, has been before the Throne and is still 
sounding in the ear of Jehovah, bringing discipline 
to the succeeding generations of his children. 

In the first place, it seems that the Spirit avoos us 
to pray for the blessings Heaven designs to give. 

We knew the history of a man who was drawn 
to prayer for the conversion and final salvation, not 
only of his children, but also of his children's chil- 
dren. He wrestled and prevailed with God, saying 
confidently, " These all will be brought in." We 
know his children and his children's children well? 
All who have died — all his children but two — and 



84 Service ant> Eeward. 

many of his grandchildren, have passed over glo- 
riously, as Mr. Cookman did, " sweeping through the 
gates," and all the rest are in the church, with a 
bright evidence of their acceptance, although some 
of them have required severe discipline to make 
them willing to accept Christ. 

As said before, much of the civilized, or rather 
christianized world is under bondage, through dis- 
cipline, in answer to prayer, and herein is the mercy 
of God in tribute to Infidelity. The unbeliever 
cannot understand why the storm that brings wealth 
and plenty to the store-houses of some, should bring 
only loMrlwind and dust to others. They cannot 
see why sunshine and flowers should grace the paths 
and fill the chambers of some large, grown up house- 
holds, while shadow, and seeds, and sorrow cover 
the little graves of others. 

Ye deaf! Can ye not hear in the pathway of the 
latter the stately steppings of disturbed Deity, be- 
fore whom the prayer of some saint has ascended ? 
And can ye not read o'er the glittering^ gateway of 



Service and ^Reward. 85 

the former — "' Ephraim is joined to his idols, let him 
alone ?" 

Just yonder I see a lofty mansion, 

"Finished with slated roof, 
Painted with fire-proof, 
Coluinns from paving board, 
Clustering heavenward. '* 

Its parlors are halls of festivity, its tables are tables 
of feasting, its entertainments attended by music 
and dancing. The downsittings and uprisings of 
the proprietor of this mansion are marked by no 
homage to his Maker, the church bell finds no echo 
in his chambers, and the Sabbath is a high day. 
Yet all seems secure. Tommy is tall and straight 
and strong, Anna is rosy and beautiful. His model 
wife is equal to the mental and social demand of any 
occasion. His fortune is ample and growing. His 
life's entire sea is unruffled by a wave of misfortune. 
Alas, it has never been said of him, " Behold he 
prayeth !" and sad as it may seem, no man has yet 
offered a petition for his soul. 

But let the most lowly disciple of Jesus, engaged 



86 



Service axd Eewabd. 



in the humblest department of his business — ^his 
gardner, his hostler, or the Lazarus of his meager 
hospitaUty, the beggar at his gate — conceive for 
him a burden of soul, carrying it until, by a 
mighty act of faith and Divine aid, he rolls it upon 
the sympathizing heart of Christ — then mark the 
visitations of Providence upon him. 

First he is impressed with a thought of the 
sanctuary, and he repairs to its sacred cham- 
ber, and hears the word, which is sealed by the 
ministry of the Spirit in a conviction of his 
duty and responsibility. But he heeds not the 
voice. He says, " I have home and love, I have 
houses and lands; what have I to do with thee, 
thou Man of Sorrows ! Go thy way for this time ; 
at a more convenient season I will call for 
thee.^' The ear of Deity catches the sound. He 
touches the wing of the avenging angel, saying^ 
" The prayer of my servant Lazarus is before me 
for the soul of Dives, but he will not yield. ]^ow, 
therefore, touch lightly, I charge thee, the body of 



Service axd Reward. 87 

one of his sacred idols ; when he findeth the tall, 
strong'^ manly Thomas stricken with fever, perad- 
venture he will hearken.'' The mandate is fulfilled. 
But Dives' heart is hardened. He demands of 
Heaven a reason for this affliction. He prates of 
injustice, and defiantly dares death to lay hands 
upon so noble a creature. He cannot die, he shall 
live. The pitying heart of Deity relents, and He 
restores Thomas. But the prayer of Lazarus holds 
Him, so He sends the angle again, with a commis- 
sion to scatter moth and rust in his gold and silver, 
to give to his treasures the wings of the morning, 
to render his companion prostrate, and to sow the 
seeds of a painful infirmity in his own body. !Now 
leofions of ang^els are in leao^ue with this work — the 
contestants of Satan for the soul of the rich man. 
All Heaven is interested. There is a great silence 
while the eai* of Omnipotence again opens to the 
voice of Dives. Jesus must have a cheerful sur- 
render. And surely now Dives' voice is low and his 
spirit sweet. Surely now he will let the enemies of 



88 Service aistd Eewarb, 

Jesus go out of his heart and listen to the ministry 
of angels. Surely now the child Jesus may come^ 
and pitying Heaven may send his Elder Brother, in 
sympathy, to bind up his wounds and heal his in- 
firmity, ^ay, alas, not yet. There comes only 
reproaches and bitterness. Hear him : " God is 
unjust. I did not ask to be created. He forced 
life upon me, and He alone is responsible for all my 
misery. I hate God, and I will not have the man 
Christ Jesus to rule over me.'' What wonder the 
Blessed Spirit, grieved and wounded, flees from 
him. But the prayer of Lazarus is still before the 
Throne, and a third time the finger of Deity tips 
the angel wing, and he is this time commissioned 
to touch the apple of Dives' eye — the lovely, 
blooming flower, the darling of his aflections — and 
the beautiful girl Anna is transferred to the Golden 
City^ while the Spirit thunders through every de- 
partment of his wounded nature, and vibrates 
through every fiber of his suffering soul, ''I rmist 
have WILLING service. Thou shall have ^o idols le- 



Service axd Reward. 89 

for meJ^^ And the stricken reecl, bruised and 
broken, falls upon Jesus, and is saved, in answer to 
the pi'ayer of a beggar who is in the highway of 
hohness. 

But, those who cheerfully come into this way do 
not have such discipline, or, if seeming trial comes, 
it is easily borne through Christ. 

In yonder lowly cot, with unpretentious sur- 
roundings, subsisting on the humblest fare, there 
dwells an aged man. He rises with the sun each 
morn, retires with the same at night. He thinks 
no thoughts men have not thought before. He 
does no work that men call great. He prunes the 
little vines about his door, and tills his patch of 
earth, and talks ivith God. He sees the hand of his 
aspiring neighbor filled with the abundance of re- 
ward, while his own hangs open by his side, then 
murmurs praise unto that One to whom the earth 
belongs, who had not where to lay his head. He 
sees his gifted brother's brow crowned with the 
brightest wreaths of fame, while in the sun-light 



90 Service a^d Reward. 

sheen his own goes bare; then with Bunyan he 
sweetly sings : 

**I am content with what I have, 
Little be it, or much ; 
And Lord, contentment still I crave, 
Because thou savest such. 

** He that is down need fear no fall, 
He that is low no pride ; 
He that is humble, ever shall 
Have God to be his guide." 

To him comes no patrimony of genius or fortune, 
yet as soon will the first ray of light that w^akes the 
Orient complain to the hills because it cannot mingle 
with the rainbow tints, as will that unassuming man 
complain because he cannot be a Rothschild or a 
Bacon. He harbors no pretty jealousies, speaks evil 
of none, asks no praise of men, seeks no reward of 
heaven, save rest in God. 

I witnessed the death of such a child of God as 
this, and when he came to lay his feeble body down, 
his triumphant spirit sang in rapturous strains, 



Service a^^d Reward. 91 

"Say, Live forever! Wondrous King, 
Born to redeem and strong to save, 
Then ask the monster, Where's thy sting, 
And Where's thy victory, boasting grave?-' 



But there are those in this way who are under dis- 
cipline, because they have placed their souls in the 
hands of the loving Master to be the best that he 
can make of them for His own glory. In this case 
His grace is always sufficient. 

Perhaps the soul thus consecrated has been be- 
trayed by his brethren, and you say, " Alas, poor 
creature, that he should so have suffered at the 
hands of those who should have followed him with 
benedictions — those of his own household.'' 

Ye blind ! Know ye not that in answer to prayer, 
the hairs of that man's head are all numbered, that 
nothing ca7i be done in Ms case only as God wills? 
Know ye not that some soul must go down into the 
Egypt of darkness and suffering, that he may, out 
of the riches of his experience, bring up corn and 
wine for his brethren, not only for the tender, com- 



92 Service aistd Rewaed. 

passionate Reuben, but also for the treacherous 
brotherhood ? Know ye not that there are some 
who go cheerfully into bondage that they may honor 
the Great Deliverer, the Mighty Conqueror, the 
Prince of Peace ? Some wander in the wilderness 
and partake of the bitterness of Marah, that they 
may regal themselves on the excellency of the 
morning's manna ; some clamber over the rugged- 
ness of Pisgah, that they may realize visions of the 
Promised Land. These are they who, through 
Christ, can do all things. 

Elijah became willing to subsist on raven's food, 
that his spirit eyes might gaze upon the assembled 
hosts of heaven, until the terrestial body, so much 
in subordination to the divine nature was uncon- 
sciously purified and diluted into the pure trans- 
parency of the celestial ; and the only reason why 
the souls of Enoch and Elijah were translated 
without the taste of death is because they walked 
with God. 

A truly consecrated soul has achieved all the vie- 



Service and Eeward. 93 

tory, and experienced all the joy of transmittal as 
truly as did Enoch and Elijah. 

St. Paul was translated in spirit into the condition 
of the saints when he wrote to Timothy : " For I 
am now ready to be offered ; the time of my depart- 
ure is at hand ; I have fought the good fight, I have 
finished my course ; I have kept the faith ; hence- 
forth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, 
which the Lord, the Righteous Judge, shall give me 
at that day, and not to me only, but unto all them 
also that love His appearing.'' The ax of the ex- 
ecutioner was only the instrument to change his 
place of residence — to send him heavenward. This 
purified tenement had not an element in it so earthly 
as to be sensitive to the touch of carnal weapons. 

This was literally true of St. John, who, on the 
Isle of Patmos, was transported to the third heaven 
of glory, and became so evanescent in body, so com- 
pletely translated, that a caldron of boiling lead, 
into which he was plunged, could not harm him. 

Poly carp had truly died to self, and risen again 



94 Seeyice akd Eeward. 

in a life hidden with Christ, long before he sang 
praises at the stake. How could he feel the power 
of the flames whose brow was fanned by angels' 
wings, and whose rapt ear had caught the sound of 
heaven's minstrelsy. 

I have no faith in the doctrine of hereditary mons- 
trosity, only so far as a common tendency to sin is 
concerned. 

Terah worshiped idols ; Abraham, his son, was 
a sublime character, worshiping the living and true 
God. 

l^o man is a thief or murderer because his father 
was. Fifty-six men, in 1776, framed an instrument 
rendering all men on this broad land of ours free 
and equal. Could he, then, whose power is unlim- 
ited, and whose conceptions of perfection are in- 
finite, create a succession of unprincely souls with 
no power of will to consecrate ? ^ay, verily, but 
all have this power, and while, in Christ's own 
words, the Prince of this world cometh to everv 
soul, yet to no soul is denied the power to consecrate. 



Service and Reward. 95 

There are Christian people to-day who carry in 
their souls the victory and joy of translation. Such 
as these have their spiritual eyes opened before the 
death hour. They hear music, see angels, feel the 
touch of their sainted mother's hand upon their 
brow, hear their departed father's footstep in their 
chamber, and by these beautiful visions their 
spirits are enticed away without a conscious pang. 

That seemed a dark dispensation attending the 
mortal annihilation of the sweet harmonist, P. P. 
Bliss, in the Ashtabula disaster, and yet w^ho could 
doubt the triumph of divinity in his soul to such 
an extent as to translate every fiber of conscious 
anatomy so far into the spiritual essence of immor- 
tality as to destroy the fear of the first and the 
power of the second death, and which held him, with 
God- like devotion, to the side of one from whom 
even death could not part him. 

I remember once of reading the Bible with a 
thought of skepticism. It was in reading the his- 
tory of the punishment of Aehan, I could not see 



96 Service akd Reward. 

the justice of causing children to suffer for the sin 
of the father ; but I prayed mightily against the 
suggestion, and was soon enabled to see that, while 
the Lord made of them, as it was necessary for 
Him to do, an example for the reflections and re- 
membrance of all Israel, how easy He could kiss or 
lure away the little spirits of the children, before 
their bodies had felt the pelting torture of a single 
stone. 

And now, I would say to all young disciples 
who feel convicted of the necessity of doing some- 
thing more, procrastinate not your entrance into 
this way — this path of perfect consecration. It 
will save you from all the fatalisms that attend un- 
consecrated lives to follow Jesus. 

How long, when some calamity has overtaken us, 
have some of us tarried, mourning and sacrificing, 
at Bochim, with thorns in our sides, because, like 
the children of Israel, we failed, upon entering the 
Canaan of our '*^ first love," to drive out the old in- 
habitant — because when, through Christ, we " drove 



Service akd Reward. 97 

out the inhabitant of the mountain/' the burden of 
our past sins, we retained "the inhabitants of the 
valley, in their chariots of iron'' — the allies of self. 
If all professing christians were to-day fully in 
this way — consecrated to be any and all things for 
God — Christ's Kingdom would, indeed, come upon 
the earth — the lion and the lamb would lie down to- 
gether — and professors everywhere could look '^ with 
open face " upon the living face and form of their 
blessed Kedeemer. 




98 Service ant> Reward. 

Chapter XIY. 
The Reward of Service in the Final Consummation. 




UR intuitions tell us that there is a King- 
dom awaiting those who have washed their 
robes in the blood of the Lamb. The 
soul's most trifling monitions are but fingers pointing 
heavenward, and he who, taught of the spirit, learns 
to read these prophesies needs no more positive proof 
of a future state of blessedness. 

There have been times when we could barely en- 
due the sensations of ecstacy imparted to our soul 
by the glintings of light among the clouds, or the 
^olian harmonies of nature filling us with the light 
of the heyond^ and wakening our being to the mel- 
odies of the Eternal. 

Men who are sincere, men of clean hearts and 
pure motives, generally act wisest and best, who 
obey first impulses, because they are the out-gushings 
of soul-prophecy of good result. 



Service aistd Reward. 99 

Bryant's dream of " Death in June^^^ was but a 
prophecy of soul which we all know was realized in 
his death upon the twelfth day of that month. This 
is his expression : 

"I gazed upon the glorious sky, 

And the green mountains round, 
And thought that when Zcame to lie 

At rest within the ground, 
'Twere pleasant that \n flowery June, 
When brooks send up a cheerful tune, 
And groves a cheerful sound. 
The sexton's hand my grave to make 
The rich green mountain turf should break. 
A cell within the frozen mound, 

A coffin borne through sleet. 
And icy clods above me rolled, 

While fierce the tempests beat. 
Away! I will think of these. 

Blue be the sky and soft the breeze, 
Earth green beneath the feet. 
And be the damp mould gently pressed. 
Into my narrow place of rest." 

But in his death there was the realization of a 
purer prophecy stirring his soul at the age of 
eighteen, in the utterance of Thanatopsis : 



100 Service ai^d Eeward. 

"So live, that when thy summons comes to join 
The innumerable caravan which moves 
To that mysterious realm, where each shall take 
His chamber in the silent halls of death, 
Thou go not, like the quarry slave at night, 
Scourged to his dungeon, but sustained and soothed 
By an unfaltering trust, approach thy grave 
Like one who wraps the drapery of his couch 
About him, and lies down to pleasant dreams." 

This is a note of his death : " His vitality con- 
tinued to diminish until 5.35 Wednesday morning, 
when, without a struggle or a disturbance of any 
sort, surrounded by his family, in his eighty-fourth 
year, he died while asleep/' 

A spirit of prophecy from the council chamber of 
Deity breathed through the infant soul of our Uttle 
Fannie, arresting in her passage to heaven the com- 
panion spirit of '' Baby Ruthy,'' in her last words 
to her, "Ruthy! Euthy!! I want my little mate^^^ 
which were verified in our own darling's death a 
few months later. 

Cowper, every page of whose life presented some 
new feature of melancholy, realized the sweetest 
compensation when he wrote : 



J 



Service and Eeward. 101 

**I see, or think 1 see, 

A glimmering from afar : 
A beam of day that shines for me, 
To save me from despair." 

It was but a premonition of the joyous surprise 
that awaited him, when he should awaken among 
the saved. If we would know these secrets of the 
Lord, we must be fully in His hands and subjects 
of His will. The breathings of Isaiah's earnest 
soul, constituting a link between the kindlings of 
Sinai and the manger, fulfilled in the coming of 
Mary's babe, were but the bolder prophecy of a soul 
on fire for God. 

It was either before David had been guilty of 
transgression, or after he had been cleansed from 
blood giciltmess^ that the Lord took him into his con- 
fidence, and, in the blissfulness of his experience, 
he cried out : " The secret of the Z/Oi^d is with them 
that fear Him.^^ God will have mediums for truth, 
if, " out of stones'' he must raise up those who will 
testify. The only reason that He spake through 
Baalam's beast was because its master was so far 



102 Service a:n^d Reward. 

out of His order that He could not speak through 
him. If we have not the light, the love, and the 
yearnings for souls of men, we must stand aside for 
those who have — the heirs of everlasting life. 

But not only the inheritance of the kingdom, but 
the privilege of seeing Ood is the Christian's final 
reward. And this is, indeed, blessed remuneration, 
for who " by searching hath found out God ?'' The 
rationalist, in whose mind reason sits supreme — who 
marks well, before the mirror of his own thought, 
Ms manner of a man — who, self-complacent, notes 
his own abilities, for which he thanks not gods or 
men — flaunting his wise commentary in older faces, 
deems all things dastard, alien, that would steal Ms 
crown^ saying "" I alone am Ood! Who else reigns 
here?'' 

The socialist has found his world of varying rings 
and circles, where, self-centered, worlds round 
worlds revolve, Ms world the center of them all. 
" This," dazed in a perpetual whirl, he cries, " is 
heaven enough for me." 



Service akd Reward. 103 

The scientist walks over all the earth, appraising* 
its treasures, arresting- its lightnings, scoojoing its 
fountains, expanding its waters, until, tired out, he 
lays his weary head on nature's loving- breast, and, 
through her throbbings and pulsations, learns the 
secrets of her being, and then cries out, ^"^Zhave it! 
This is Godr 

The philosopher, with exulting foot, leaps from 
orb to orb, and, amid the sunsets of a myriad worlds, 
marks their cool mountain brows, tipped and bronzed, 
and the channels of their waters, wide and deep, 
saying '^ Zhave found it ! Here is Ood and heaven !'' 

Up the ruggedness of a mighty steep there comes 
a traveler, time-weary, earth-soiled, and toil-worn. 
As he passes on, he feels the fannings of the wings 
of the seraphim and cherubim, and heavenly har- 
monies tune his soul, until inspired, he drops the 
sandals of mortality, enters the ISTew Jerusalem, 
and, bending to his crown, he hears a voice saying : 
" The tabernacle of God is with men, and He will 
dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and 



104: Service aistd Reward. 

God himself shall be with them, and be their God. 
And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes ; 
and there shall be no more death ; neither sorrow 
nor crying ; neither shall there be any more pain, 
for the former things are passed away. Behold, I 
make all things new. It is done. I am Alpha and 
Omega^ the heginning and the end^ the first and the 
last I will give him that is athirst of the fountain 
of the water of life freely. He that overcometh shall 
inherit all things^ and I will be his God, and he shall 
be my son.'' He sees the King in his glory, and 
the Lamb that was slain ; he has found out Ood^ 
and, as he rests amid the evergreen mountains of 
life, he echoes the general psalm of praise : " Amen ! 
Blessing^ and glory ^ and wisdom^ and thanksgiving^ 
and honor ^ and weight he unto our Ood forever and 
ever. Amen .^" 

But when we shall know God in our resurrected 
body. The heart in its exile and loneliness, in the 
half' way passage between carnality and spirituality, 
buried beneath the rottenness^ and torn of earthly 



Service a:n^d Eeward. 105 

hopes, when commanded by the " Man of Sorrows" 
to " come forth" from its grave of sadness, as it 
rises up into the pure atmosphere of Beulah Land, 
but typifies a promised resurrection. 

In the processes of nature, we have a type of 
coming resurrection. In all things there are evi- 
dences of the going down of the old and the com- 
ing up of the new existence. That little globe of 
fruition, in its tiny vase, an acorn, dipping into the 
ashes of nature, hides its young life in the grave of 
dust, that it may come up on its resurrection morn- 
ing a more vigorous life. That clumsy, uncomely 
thing, a worm, after one year of greasy, cringing, 
crawling, tumbling existence, weaving around its 
own form a silken shroud, hides beneath autumn 
leaves, (themselves penciled, painted, and then 
scattered to decay,) that it may burst forth on its 
first new-life day, a perfect embodiment of freedom? 
airiness, and beauty. 

In contemplating these intimations of nature, 
what mind ean resist the question : ^^ If a man dies, 



106 Service aistd Eeward. 

shall Jie live again ?" Happy is he who reads his 
answer in inspiration, accepting as he reads, not 
only its teachings as to this question, but as to the 
resurrection of the body. 

If any living creature had reason to discard the 
flesh. Job had, and yet we find him glorying as 
much in prospect of its exaltation as in a living 
Redeemer : " O, that my words were now written ! 
That they were printed in a book! That they were 
graven with an iron pen, and read in the rock for- 
ever ! For I know that my Redeemer liveth, and 
that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth. 
And though after my skin worms shall destroy this 
body, yet in my fiesh shall I see God.'' 

To the spirit of investigation there comes these 
inquiries : Is this perceptible body superior to that 
of the horse in his manger, or the ox in his stall ? 
Does it contain only a germ, which shall spring up 
into a spiritual body, or will it be bone for bone, mus- 
cle for muscle, and sinew for sinew ? And will it there, 
as here, bear the marks of wounds and deformity ? 



Service ant> Reward. 107 

The first inquiry may be answered by another. 
To what form of beast said God, at any time, " Ye 
are my teni'plesT'^ As to the second question, will 
the new body spring from a germ, or will it be bone 
for bone, and particle for particle ? we only know 
that the glorified body will be like that which, 
when removed from the sepulcher in the typical 
resurrection, left it vacant, so that Mary, as she 
sought Him, weeping, said to the angels : " They 
have taken away my Lord, and I know not where 
they have laid Him.'' Our resurrection body will 
be like His who did not see corruption^ who proved 
His identity by His wounds^ saying to Thomas : 
'' Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands ; 
and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my 
side ; and be not faithless, but believing.'' " But," 
insists the skeptic, "if cannibal B. eat civilized D., 
at the resurrection whose shall the body be?" I 
only know that He who, with one sweep of His 
hand, can fling a myriad worlds into infinite space, 
each making revolution without collision or loss of 



108 Service ant> Reward. 

particles, could, if he chose to do so, sever from 
other forms of matter and collect to each person- 
ality its native particles in less time than my mind 
could trace the deed. That which this frame takes 
oflF and puts on in the period alotted it by scien- 
tists for its change, is not the individual. Any 
particles that shall clothe this form, animated by 
this soul, will be the veritable identity tracing these 
lines. I care not what constitutes that robe — 
whether it be glorified dust, or only some spiritual 
impersonation giving expression to this form. 

The day of dreaming and speculation with us is 
past. It matters not so much to us now, whether 
the apple that grew on Roger Williams' grave is 
part of his body which cannot he resurrected^ as 
whether each little act of these hands and this 
heart is budding, and blossoming, and developing 
into Divine fruition, knowing that at some time, in 
some form of glorified body, we will, with memory, 
reason, and perceptive powers intensified, be reap- 
ing the reward of our doings when we were inhab- 



Service aistd Reward. 109 

it ants of earth. What matter^ O, what matter, 
only so that in that body, whatever it may be, we 
hear it said : " Come, ye blessed of my Father, in- 
herit the kingdom prepared for you from the foun- 
dations of the world ?" 




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